Archives for: February 2007, 27

I started the Blood Type Diet because nothing I had tried nutritionally or medically gave me relief from GERD. Because I've written about it so often, people sometimes write me about their GERD problems. I was in the car and heard a fabulous radio interview on the subject. Neither the host, nor the guest talked specifically about the BTD, but what they were saying was very compatible. I'll summarize what the guest had to say.

Significantly less than half of the people who seek help for acid indigestion have too much stomach acid. In reality most have low stomach acid. However, their acid level is rarely tested. Instead, they are automatically given antacids or other medication that will lower stomach acid production.

Here is the way he said your digestive system is supposed to work. Food arrives in your stomach and hydrochloric acid is released to continue the digestive process. Your stomach muscle mixes the food and acid. When the amount of stomach acid reaches a certain level the muscle at the bottom of your stomach opens, releasing the food to your duodenum. If things are working properly, the food and acid will be out of your stomach in two hours.

However if you do not produce enough stomach acid, the food in your stomach isn't released. It continues to churn. You eat dinner, and go to bed several hours later. Your stomach is still full of weak acid and food. When you lie down that mixture seeps back into your esophagus, and you wake in the middle of the night with heartburn.

I believe my problems were the result of inflammation caused by wheat and dairy avoids in my digestive system. My symptoms cleared up within days of getting the avoids out of my diet. However, if you switch to the BTD and continue to have GERD symptoms, according to the man I heard on the radio, you might investigate natural ways to raise your stomach acid.